Tuesday, April 14, 2015

To Moments We Have Left To Live






 Last night the sky went from one wow stage to the next...I was out from 7:30 to 8:30 watching the splendor of God's 'outer fringes' in full glory!

 In Jonna's tribute to Kara Tippetts she reminded us how Kara said "...what I have is Jesus. He has given me breath, and with it I pray I would live well and fade well. By degrees of doing both, living and dying, as I have moments left to live." 
Should that not be each of our desire, as we have moments left to live?

We do not know and none can tell
When we will bid Time’s chime farewell
Then we should strive our best to give
As we have moments left to live

How stilly ebbs the fading day
Over the west and far away
Matrix of mercy’s take-and-give
Of old to new moments to live

Pray we do not ill-treat the air
Drenched with our little Here to There
For none can tell how full the sieve
Of moments we have left to live

There is no rehearsal for this;
Life’s last and awesome farewell kiss
Then may we our full fervor give
To moments we have left to live

© Janet Martin



Where The World is Full of Spring...





The air is full of zephyr
And the lark with caroling
The heart is full of laughter
Where the world is full of spring

Time’s sterner stance has softened
Like we often wished it would
As earth becomes a garden
Filled with smiles of ‘it is good’

The limb is lush with ruby
And the ruby flushed with bloom
Our labor more than duty
In time's newborn living-room

 The breeze is full of banter
And our dreams are full of gold
Where heaven’s blue decanter
Pours warm sunbeams to our hold

That place we cannot enter
Save in thought, remembering
Has gained another winter
Where the world is full of spring

© Janet Martin

Monday, April 13, 2015

Embrace It...to all of us




Congratulations to Jordan Spieth, enjoying some gold green-jacket moments:)



Embrace it; 
the offspring of trying
and never giving up
Savor full the flavor of
The victor's cup

Embrace it;
life's joy and sorrow
finely interlace
and who knows what tomorrow holds
to take its place

So, embrace it;
this very moment
flowing Whence to Thence
is shaping and bestowing
recompense

Janet~



Sometimes In The Looking Up

PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, write a confession poem. 

Sometimes I forget
and the waking morning wears
the weight of worry and regret
instead of prayer

Sometimes I forget
how to love and trust
staggering beneath the yoke
of must-drenched dust

Sometimes I forget
while You fill up the sky
with the hem of heaven's glory 
and glimpsed Majesty
 
But then, in the looking up
My heart storm is subdued
As I confess my wanting-ness
Hope is renewed

 Janet Martin~

 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Ps. 39:7

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Ps.130:5

Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Ps.62:5



Saturday, April 11, 2015

April Is...

PAD Challenge day 11: For today’s prompt, write a seasonal poem.




April is a stage with curtain drawn
While our expectation
Spawns visions of velvet lawn
And picnic celebration

April is a maiden with much to do
While she shakes her apron
Ten-thousand-thousand miracles
Startle earth from heaven

The waiting before the have-and-hold
Keens our appreciation
And suddenly each moment is
A most sacred creation

For April is a dowdy harbinger
Yet, a favorite of ours
Because she scrubs earth’s floors before
May fills the world with flowers

© Janet Martin


Friday, April 10, 2015

How I Love You


 'I've had it!' I announced after another frantic' hurry-up, it's bus-time!!' morning...that was a few days ago and I told them there will be no more mother-shouts. If they miss the bus they are grounded and fined...(yes, they're old enough to pay fines;) and yes, I love them but no longer as an alarm-clock!

This week (Master's Week), golfer Gary Player  inspired me to re-look at the work ethic I am teaching my family. He asked a class of students how many want to play pro-golf and many hands shot up, then he asked how many are up at 6:00 a.m. and no hands went up. 'you will not be pro-golfers',  he said.

PAD challenge day 10: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “How (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem...

Sometimes I wonder if you know
How much I really love you
In smiles of washed dishes, mopped floors, clean clothes
And a rain-proof, mortgaged roof above you

Sometimes I wonder in the holding, scolding
Folding away of daylight beneath dusk
If you are aware that the air you breathe
Is anointed with prayer-whispers of love

Sometimes I wonder if my mother wondered
In the hustle-bustle, hurry-way of days
If we recognized how what she is doing
Is because she loved us in these time-tried ways

Sometimes I wonder at the quickness of hours
How, how we fill them soon slips to the past
And how, how I love you will fill thought-pictures
Splayed in echoes of childhood-shadows cast

Janet~aka Mom



Thursday, April 9, 2015

Work of Art

When my cousin Robb was 17 his love for art and metal inspired him to 'set up shop' in the corner of a shed on my Uncle Oscar's farm. Now twenty-some years later he works at/owns Thak Ironworks, a business that requires extremely hard work, yet provides an outlet for his talent/passion! His work has been sold world-wide...be it high-end armor, railings, gates, range-hoods and other numerous works of art. Below are a few shots of some of his work. Visit his site for more info and pictures.




Time is a sequence of moments 
From life's kind Giver they pour
and what we do with them will be 
what we are remembered for...

Workmanship is something
That shapes our legacy
We would do well to remember this
In whatever that work may be

So forge from the fire of moments
Love's best with hand and heart
For then the end result will be
A beautiful work of art

Janet~ 

Robb, thank-you again for the impromtu interview.

If you are passing through Floradale, Ontario, check it out!

PAD Challenge day 9; write a work poem







Thursday Thoughts on Work

PAD Challenge Day 9: write a work poem.


You can tell a lot ‘bout folk
Not by what but how they work

***

No matter how menial
Or mundane its action
A job done well
Brings satisfaction

***

The happiest people
I bump into
Are those who have
A job to do

***

Do what you love, or else
Love what you do
This secret to success, my friend
Is up to me
And you

***

Not for great fame or wealth I ask
But that You fit me for my task
And Lord, grant then the work I do
Is a worship-song back to You

***

Happy the man who fills his days
Not by seeking but giving praise

***

The merit of satisfaction
Money cannot buy
But it rewards the one who gives
Life his or her best try

***

The only way
To truly enjoy
a holiday
is to work for it

***

The medicine of good, hard work
If bottled up and sold
Would soon heal unemployment
And the fear of growing old

***

If you are healthy
Work
If you are lonely
Work
If you are hungry
Work
If you are angry
Work
If you are anxious
Work
If you are lazy
Work
If you are young
Work
If you are old
Work
If you are rich
work
If you are poor
Work
If you are wise
Work
If you are foolish
Work
If you are able
Work
If you are awake
Work
If you are human
Work
Because someday
When you are sick in bed
You’ll wish for nothing, friend,
But to feel well enough to
Work

***

Beware, if you are afraid of work
That fear will kill you

***

Long it’s been spoken
And long it’s been true
The devil loves hands
With nothing to do

***

If you do not believe
That work is a beautiful trait
Then ask someone who’s lost their job
And they will set you straight

***

The poet’s work is best because
It seems in everything she does
No matter what her toil may be
The end result is poetry

***

So if we have a job to do
We should think it worth doing well
Whether we shine or wear the shoe
God sees the ‘me’ beneath the shell

So if we have a job to do
We should remember, rich or poor
That someday we will answer to
The Master we are working for

***

If you have work
Do not abhor it
But be glad
And thank God for it

***

When I asked God to keep and bless
This day I guess He knew
The secret to true happiness,
...He gave me work to do

***

Whether your tool of trade is a spade,
A pen, a steering wheel
This is the day the Lord has made
In which to use it well

© Janet Martin